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Comment by sitkack | Hacker News Reader

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christian-zionism-israel-anti...

I've never really understood the relationship between the US and Israel. The US gives Israel pretty much whatever it wants and in return the US gets ... nothing? Israel even (deliberately?) attacked a US ship during the 6 day war, with little (if any) consequences:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

>While millions of American evangelical Christians have long been fervent supporters of the Jewish state because of End Times prophecies

Is that the main reason for this incredibly one-sided relationship?

The main reason is geopolitics. Israel is an ally in the Middle East, a key region to US foreign policy.

So is Saudi Arabia. The US doesn't have such a one-sided relationship with them, as far as I can see.

Those apocalyptic prophecies are a big part of it, yes. Many politicians are believers in those prophecies, and many more count on votes from those believers. There's also the whole "God's chosen people" stuff, and a lot of older people think Israel should be given a blank cheque due to WW2 stuff. And of course some of it comes from wealthy donors like Miriam Adelson, a desire to go overboard to distance themselves from the threat of being labelled an antisemite, a desire to paint themselves as more pro-Israel than the other party, etc.

It isn't much comfort that people who believe in apocalyptic prophecies have significant power in a country with a lot of nuclear weapons.

There's also the effectiveness of the Israel lobby. Various pro-Israel organisations fund almost all members of congress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Fore...

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